Thanks to Olympias, a full-scale working model of an Athenian trieres (trireme or “three”) built by the Hellenic Navy during the 1980s, we better understand the physical properties of the trireme ...
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Thanks to Olympias, a full-scale working model of an Athenian trieres (trireme or “three”) built by the Hellenic Navy during the 1980s, we better understand the physical properties of the trireme navies that defeated Xerxes at Salamis and helped build the Athenian Empire of the High Classical Age. The Age of Titans picks up the story of naval warfare and naval power after the Peloponnesian War, following it through the 4th and 3rd centuries BC when Alexander’s successors built huge oared galleys in what has been described as an ancient naval arms race. This book represents the fruits of more than thirty years of research into warships “of larger form” (as Livy calls them) that weighed hundreds of tons and were crewed by 600 to 1000 men and more. The book argues that concrete strategic objectives, more than simple displays of power, explain the naval arms race that developed among Alexander’s successors and drove the development of a new model of naval power we might call “Macedonian.” The model’s immense price tag was unsustainable, however, and during the third century the big ship phenomenon faded in importance, only to be revived unsuccessfully by Antony and Cleopatra in the 1st century BC.Less

The Age of Titans : The Rise and Fall of the Great Hellenistic Navies

William Murray

Published in print: 2012-01-06

Thanks to Olympias, a full-scale working model of an Athenian trieres (trireme or “three”) built by the Hellenic Navy during the 1980s, we better understand the physical properties of the trireme navies that defeated Xerxes at Salamis and helped build the Athenian Empire of the High Classical Age. The Age of Titans picks up the story of naval warfare and naval power after the Peloponnesian War, following it through the 4th and 3rd centuries BC when Alexander’s successors built huge oared galleys in what has been described as an ancient naval arms race. This book represents the fruits of more than thirty years of research into warships “of larger form” (as Livy calls them) that weighed hundreds of tons and were crewed by 600 to 1000 men and more. The book argues that concrete strategic objectives, more than simple displays of power, explain the naval arms race that developed among Alexander’s successors and drove the development of a new model of naval power we might call “Macedonian.” The model’s immense price tag was unsustainable, however, and during the third century the big ship phenomenon faded in importance, only to be revived unsuccessfully by Antony and Cleopatra in the 1st century BC.

This book collects together ten contributions by leading scholars in the field of Alexander studies that represent the most advanced scholarship in this area. They span the gamut between historical ...
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This book collects together ten contributions by leading scholars in the field of Alexander studies that represent the most advanced scholarship in this area. They span the gamut between historical reconstruction and historiographical research and, viewed as a whole, represent a wide spectrum of methodology. This first English collection of essays on Alexander the Great of Macedon includes a comparison of the Spanish conquest of Mexico with the Macedonians in the east that examines the attitudes towards the subject peoples and the justification of conquest, an analysis of the attested conspiracies at the Macedonian and Persian courts, and studies of panhellenic ideology and the concept of kingship. There is a radical new interpretation of the hunting fresco from Tomb II at Vergina, and a new date for the pamphlet on Alexander's last days that ends the Alexander Romance, and a re-interpretation of the bizarre portents of his death. Three chapters on historiography address the problem of interpreting Alexander's attested behaviour, the indirect source tradition used by Polybius, and the resonances of contemporary politics in the extant histories.Less

Alexander the Great in Fact and Fiction

Published in print: 2000-09-07

This book collects together ten contributions by leading scholars in the field of Alexander studies that represent the most advanced scholarship in this area. They span the gamut between historical reconstruction and historiographical research and, viewed as a whole, represent a wide spectrum of methodology. This first English collection of essays on Alexander the Great of Macedon includes a comparison of the Spanish conquest of Mexico with the Macedonians in the east that examines the attitudes towards the subject peoples and the justification of conquest, an analysis of the attested conspiracies at the Macedonian and Persian courts, and studies of panhellenic ideology and the concept of kingship. There is a radical new interpretation of the hunting fresco from Tomb II at Vergina, and a new date for the pamphlet on Alexander's last days that ends the Alexander Romance, and a re-interpretation of the bizarre portents of his death. Three chapters on historiography address the problem of interpreting Alexander's attested behaviour, the indirect source tradition used by Polybius, and the resonances of contemporary politics in the extant histories.

In 1993 the world celebrated the 2500th anniversary of the birth of democracy in ancient Athens, whose polis — or citizen state — is often viewed as the model ancient Greek state. In an age when ...
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In 1993 the world celebrated the 2500th anniversary of the birth of democracy in ancient Athens, whose polis — or citizen state — is often viewed as the model ancient Greek state. In an age when democracy has apparently triumphed following the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, it tends to be forgetten that the democratic citizen state was only one of many forms of political community in Greek antiquity. This volume aims to redress the balance by showing that democratic Athens was not the model ancient Greek state, and focuses on a range of city states operating a variety of non-democratic political systems in the ancient Greek world. Eighteen essays by established and younger historians examine alternative political systems and ideologies: oligarchies, monarchies, and mixed constitutions, along with diverse forms of communal and regional associations such as ethnoi, amphiktyonies, and confederacies. The papers, which span the length and breadth of the Hellenic world from the Balkans and Anatolia to Magna Graecia and North Africa, highlight the immense political flexibility and diversity of ancient Greek civilization.Less

Alternatives to Athens : Varieties of Political Organization and Community in Ancient Greece

Published in print: 2002-12-12

In 1993 the world celebrated the 2500th anniversary of the birth of democracy in ancient Athens, whose polis — or citizen state — is often viewed as the model ancient Greek state. In an age when democracy has apparently triumphed following the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, it tends to be forgetten that the democratic citizen state was only one of many forms of political community in Greek antiquity. This volume aims to redress the balance by showing that democratic Athens was not the model ancient Greek state, and focuses on a range of city states operating a variety of non-democratic political systems in the ancient Greek world. Eighteen essays by established and younger historians examine alternative political systems and ideologies: oligarchies, monarchies, and mixed constitutions, along with diverse forms of communal and regional associations such as ethnoi, amphiktyonies, and confederacies. The papers, which span the length and breadth of the Hellenic world from the Balkans and Anatolia to Magna Graecia and North Africa, highlight the immense political flexibility and diversity of ancient Greek civilization.

Ancient emotions have only recently received scholarly analysis. Disgust has experienced relative neglect even now because of social and academic disinclination to study something in which humans ...
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Ancient emotions have only recently received scholarly analysis. Disgust has experienced relative neglect even now because of social and academic disinclination to study something in which humans take no pride—however essential to survival the primary emotion may be. Yet, the emotion, both a reflexive response to vile substances (“primary disgust”) and a powerful mechanism of social and moral exclusion (“moral disgust”), is salient in ancient literature and art. The study of ancient disgust is incorporated in a bourgeoning literature concerning slander, the aesthetics of ugliness, and the construction of social hierarchies or indeed the marginalization of social outcasts. Scholars from the United States and Europe have contributed fourteen essays here that range over diverse Greek historical and literary topics, such as disgust in the Hippocratic corpus, in classical Attic comedy, tragedy, and oratory, as well as Hellenistic learned poetry and Aesop. Roman historical and literary topics include the disgust root pig-, fastidium in Livy, witches, attitudes toward eunuch priests, theatrical professionals’ reputation, and disgust in the Latin novel. An introduction examines ancient concepts and images and modern political applications of this violent but necessary emotion. The book will interest scholars and students in history, literature, psychology, philosophy, anthropology, and sociology, and anyone attracted to emotion research, especially the so-called negative emotions.Less

The Ancient Emotion of Disgust

Donald LateinerDimos Spatharas

Published in print: 2016-11-24

Ancient emotions have only recently received scholarly analysis. Disgust has experienced relative neglect even now because of social and academic disinclination to study something in which humans take no pride—however essential to survival the primary emotion may be. Yet, the emotion, both a reflexive response to vile substances (“primary disgust”) and a powerful mechanism of social and moral exclusion (“moral disgust”), is salient in ancient literature and art. The study of ancient disgust is incorporated in a bourgeoning literature concerning slander, the aesthetics of ugliness, and the construction of social hierarchies or indeed the marginalization of social outcasts. Scholars from the United States and Europe have contributed fourteen essays here that range over diverse Greek historical and literary topics, such as disgust in the Hippocratic corpus, in classical Attic comedy, tragedy, and oratory, as well as Hellenistic learned poetry and Aesop. Roman historical and literary topics include the disgust root pig-, fastidium in Livy, witches, attitudes toward eunuch priests, theatrical professionals’ reputation, and disgust in the Latin novel. An introduction examines ancient concepts and images and modern political applications of this violent but necessary emotion. The book will interest scholars and students in history, literature, psychology, philosophy, anthropology, and sociology, and anyone attracted to emotion research, especially the so-called negative emotions.

The endogenous rise of primary states constituted a major organizational revolution, for through emulation or coercion these states served as prototypes for all subsequent large-scale, politically ...
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The endogenous rise of primary states constituted a major organizational revolution, for through emulation or coercion these states served as prototypes for all subsequent large-scale, politically organized societies that have replaced and encompassed all small-scale societies. Primary states emerged before sophisticated writing systems in six generally recognized regions: Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley, China, Mesoamerica, and Andean South America. This book identifies Polynesia as the seventh such region by tracing the emergence of primary states in Hawai`i that, along with the Tongan state, were the only ones described by fully literate eyewitnesses. The Hawaiian state emergence model, constructed here from archaeological and historical evidence, employs comparisons with Tonga and five Polynesian nonstate societies to propose that the Hawaiian state emergence entailed a profound sociopolitical transformation in which leadership of each large Hawaiian island shifted from a relatively powerless symbolic chief to a warrior-king who exercised legitimate political power as head of a centralized government. The key management innovation was the ruler’s ability to assert control indirectly by delegating power among multiple tiers of a hierarchical bureaucracy. Modeled modifications of the old order also included the funding of government operations with taxes diverted from the goods once collected for distribution among commoners, the invention of conquest warfare, and the shift from dual ownership to chiefs’ assertion of property rights superior to those of commoners. According to the hard times hypothesis, a major impetus for the escalation of power politics may have been unrest among chiefs and commoners triggered by faltering agricultural productivity.Less

The Ancient Hawaiian State : Origins of a Political Society

Robert J. Hommon

Published in print: 2013-04-05

The endogenous rise of primary states constituted a major organizational revolution, for through emulation or coercion these states served as prototypes for all subsequent large-scale, politically organized societies that have replaced and encompassed all small-scale societies. Primary states emerged before sophisticated writing systems in six generally recognized regions: Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley, China, Mesoamerica, and Andean South America. This book identifies Polynesia as the seventh such region by tracing the emergence of primary states in Hawai`i that, along with the Tongan state, were the only ones described by fully literate eyewitnesses. The Hawaiian state emergence model, constructed here from archaeological and historical evidence, employs comparisons with Tonga and five Polynesian nonstate societies to propose that the Hawaiian state emergence entailed a profound sociopolitical transformation in which leadership of each large Hawaiian island shifted from a relatively powerless symbolic chief to a warrior-king who exercised legitimate political power as head of a centralized government. The key management innovation was the ruler’s ability to assert control indirectly by delegating power among multiple tiers of a hierarchical bureaucracy. Modeled modifications of the old order also included the funding of government operations with taxes diverted from the goods once collected for distribution among commoners, the invention of conquest warfare, and the shift from dual ownership to chiefs’ assertion of property rights superior to those of commoners. According to the hard times hypothesis, a major impetus for the escalation of power politics may have been unrest among chiefs and commoners triggered by faltering agricultural productivity.

This book draws on theories of space in cultural geography and anthropology to study the representation of space in Apollonius of Rhodes’ epic poem, the Argonautika. In Apollonius’s narrative, the ...
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This book draws on theories of space in cultural geography and anthropology to study the representation of space in Apollonius of Rhodes’ epic poem, the Argonautika. In Apollonius’s narrative, the voyage of the Argo in quest of the Golden Fleece defines a space with mainland Greece as its center, and Greek culture provides the perspective through which the Argonauts’ experiences are principally portrayed. At the same time, the poem shows clearly the limits of Greek mastery of space. Some areas cannot be incorporated into Greek space, and in some episodes space is marked with signs that preserve narratives in which the perspectives of the non-Greek peoples whom the Argonauts encounter are preserved. Thus the poem both affirms the centrality of Hellenism and questions it at the same time; it implies the traditional Greek division of the world into themselves and “barbarians” and simultaneously destabilizes it through the Argonauts’ experiences of others as an interplay of similarity and difference. Ethnic boundaries and cultural identity are thus shown to be uncertain and open to negotiation. This sense of the blurring of boundaries speaks to the experiences of Greeks in the early Ptolemaic period in Alexandria, where they lived among and ruled Egyptians in a multicultural city at a time when the conquests of Alexander had expanded Greek cultural horizons. The poem uses the Argonautic myth to explore the anxieties about identity and the sense of new possibilities arising from this experience of cultural contact.Less

Apollonius of Rhodes and the Spaces of Hellenism

William G. Thalmann

Published in print: 2011-05-20

This book draws on theories of space in cultural geography and anthropology to study the representation of space in Apollonius of Rhodes’ epic poem, the Argonautika. In Apollonius’s narrative, the voyage of the Argo in quest of the Golden Fleece defines a space with mainland Greece as its center, and Greek culture provides the perspective through which the Argonauts’ experiences are principally portrayed. At the same time, the poem shows clearly the limits of Greek mastery of space. Some areas cannot be incorporated into Greek space, and in some episodes space is marked with signs that preserve narratives in which the perspectives of the non-Greek peoples whom the Argonauts encounter are preserved. Thus the poem both affirms the centrality of Hellenism and questions it at the same time; it implies the traditional Greek division of the world into themselves and “barbarians” and simultaneously destabilizes it through the Argonauts’ experiences of others as an interplay of similarity and difference. Ethnic boundaries and cultural identity are thus shown to be uncertain and open to negotiation. This sense of the blurring of boundaries speaks to the experiences of Greeks in the early Ptolemaic period in Alexandria, where they lived among and ruled Egyptians in a multicultural city at a time when the conquests of Alexander had expanded Greek cultural horizons. The poem uses the Argonautic myth to explore the anxieties about identity and the sense of new possibilities arising from this experience of cultural contact.

What factors already present in the society of the High Roman Empire developed and expanded into the world of Late Antiquity? What was distinct in this period from what went before? The answers to ...
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What factors already present in the society of the High Roman Empire developed and expanded into the world of Late Antiquity? What was distinct in this period from what went before? The answers to these questions embrace the fields of cultural history, politics, ideas, art, philosophy, pagan religion, Christian church, Greek and Latin literature, the army, the law, the provinces, settlement, and the economy. This book is an illustrated collection of fifteen essays on the later Roman world, and each study focuses on the two centuries from AD 200 to 400. The book challenges orthodoxies (for example, Honoré on law, Whitby on military life, Edwards on monotheism), gives coverage (Duncan-Jones on economy, Cameron on poetry, Elsner on art), and discusses the general issues and problems through major examples (McLynn on emperors in church, Papi on Italian towns, Adams on governing Egypt, Swain on Libanius, Garnsey on citizens, Dillon on philosophers, Walker on mummy portraits). The authors have set their contributions in the light of current approaches and bibliography, and the volume is a reference work in its own right.Less

Approaching Late Antiquity : The Transformation from Early to Late Empire

Published in print: 2006-05-25

What factors already present in the society of the High Roman Empire developed and expanded into the world of Late Antiquity? What was distinct in this period from what went before? The answers to these questions embrace the fields of cultural history, politics, ideas, art, philosophy, pagan religion, Christian church, Greek and Latin literature, the army, the law, the provinces, settlement, and the economy. This book is an illustrated collection of fifteen essays on the later Roman world, and each study focuses on the two centuries from AD 200 to 400. The book challenges orthodoxies (for example, Honoré on law, Whitby on military life, Edwards on monotheism), gives coverage (Duncan-Jones on economy, Cameron on poetry, Elsner on art), and discusses the general issues and problems through major examples (McLynn on emperors in church, Papi on Italian towns, Adams on governing Egypt, Swain on Libanius, Garnsey on citizens, Dillon on philosophers, Walker on mummy portraits). The authors have set their contributions in the light of current approaches and bibliography, and the volume is a reference work in its own right.

The Late Assyrian Empire (c.900–612 BCE) was the first state to rule the major centres of the Middle East. The Assyrian court inhabited some of the most monumental palaces of its time. The ...
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The Late Assyrian Empire (c.900–612 BCE) was the first state to rule the major centres of the Middle East. The Assyrian court inhabited some of the most monumental palaces of its time. The Architecture of Late Assyrian Royal Palaces is the first book to provide an in-depth analysis of Late Assyrian palatial architecture; it offers a general introduction to all major royal palaces in the major centres of the empire: Assur, Kalḫu, Dur-Sharruken, and Nineveh. The book gives a comprehensive overview of all the relevant excavated materials, bringing together the architecture as currently understood within the broader framework of textual and art-historical sources, and providing new plans for all palaces. Research has often focused on a duality between public and private realms. This book redefines the architectural principles governing these palaces and proposes a new historical framework; it analyses the organization of access and movement, the spatial organization of the palace community, and the role of the king within the palaces. The book argues that architectural changes were guided by a need to accommodate ever-larger groups as the empire grew in size. The main reception suites became more monumental over time, but the general principles of Late Assyrian architecture remained. This included an architecture that focused on the interior of spaces, placed the king front and centre, and was primarily geared to state activity even in the more residential areas of the palaces.Less

The Architecture of Late Assyrian Royal Palaces

David Kertai

Published in print: 2015-03-01

The Late Assyrian Empire (c.900–612 BCE) was the first state to rule the major centres of the Middle East. The Assyrian court inhabited some of the most monumental palaces of its time. The Architecture of Late Assyrian Royal Palaces is the first book to provide an in-depth analysis of Late Assyrian palatial architecture; it offers a general introduction to all major royal palaces in the major centres of the empire: Assur, Kalḫu, Dur-Sharruken, and Nineveh. The book gives a comprehensive overview of all the relevant excavated materials, bringing together the architecture as currently understood within the broader framework of textual and art-historical sources, and providing new plans for all palaces. Research has often focused on a duality between public and private realms. This book redefines the architectural principles governing these palaces and proposes a new historical framework; it analyses the organization of access and movement, the spatial organization of the palace community, and the role of the king within the palaces. The book argues that architectural changes were guided by a need to accommodate ever-larger groups as the empire grew in size. The main reception suites became more monumental over time, but the general principles of Late Assyrian architecture remained. This included an architecture that focused on the interior of spaces, placed the king front and centre, and was primarily geared to state activity even in the more residential areas of the palaces.

This is a study that examines the sale of sex in classical Athens from a commercial (rather than from a cultural or moral) perspective. As a mercantile activity, however, prostitution was not ...
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This is a study that examines the sale of sex in classical Athens from a commercial (rather than from a cultural or moral) perspective. As a mercantile activity, however, prostitution was not untouched by elite Athenian antagonism toward business; as the “business of sex,” prostitution further evoked negativity from segments of Greek opinion uncomfortable with any form of carnality. Yet ancient sources also adumbrate another view, in which the sale of sex, lawful and indeed pervasive at Athens, is presented alluringly. The book explores the high compensation earned by female sexual entrepreneurs who often controlled prostitutional businesses that were perpetuated from generation to generation on a matrilineal basis, and that benefited from legislative restrictions on pimping. The author juxtaposes the widespread practice of “prostitution pursuant to written contract” with legislation targeting male prostitutes functioning as governmental leaders, and explores the seemingly contradictory phenomena of extensive sexual exploitation of slave prostitutes (male and female) coexisting with Athenian society’s pride in its legislative protection of slaves and minors against sexual outrage.Less

Athenian Prostitution : The Business of Sex

Edward E. Cohen

Published in print: 2016-01-01

This is a study that examines the sale of sex in classical Athens from a commercial (rather than from a cultural or moral) perspective. As a mercantile activity, however, prostitution was not untouched by elite Athenian antagonism toward business; as the “business of sex,” prostitution further evoked negativity from segments of Greek opinion uncomfortable with any form of carnality. Yet ancient sources also adumbrate another view, in which the sale of sex, lawful and indeed pervasive at Athens, is presented alluringly. The book explores the high compensation earned by female sexual entrepreneurs who often controlled prostitutional businesses that were perpetuated from generation to generation on a matrilineal basis, and that benefited from legislative restrictions on pimping. The author juxtaposes the widespread practice of “prostitution pursuant to written contract” with legislation targeting male prostitutes functioning as governmental leaders, and explores the seemingly contradictory phenomena of extensive sexual exploitation of slave prostitutes (male and female) coexisting with Athenian society’s pride in its legislative protection of slaves and minors against sexual outrage.

Among medieval Christian societies, Byzantium is unique in preserving an ecclesiastical ritual of adelphopoiesis, which pronounces two men as brothers. It has its origin as a spiritual blessing in ...
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Among medieval Christian societies, Byzantium is unique in preserving an ecclesiastical ritual of adelphopoiesis, which pronounces two men as brothers. It has its origin as a spiritual blessing in the monastic world of Late Antiquity, becomes a popular social networking strategy among laypeople from the ninth century onwards, and still finds application in recent times. Located at the intersection of religious and social history, brother-making exemplifies how social practice can become ritualized and subsequently subjected to attempts of ecclesiastical and legal control. The purpose and application of adelphopoiesis can be studied within three large, and partially overlapping, contexts: within the context of male-male relations, as a way to formalize a partnership; within the context of ritual kinship strategies, as a way to expand one’s family circle; and within the context of Byzantine Christianity, as a way for the church to exercise influence and control.Less

Brother-Making in Late Antiquity and Byzantium : Monks, Laymen, and Christian Ritual

Claudia Rapp

Published in print: 2016-03-01

Among medieval Christian societies, Byzantium is unique in preserving an ecclesiastical ritual of adelphopoiesis, which pronounces two men as brothers. It has its origin as a spiritual blessing in the monastic world of Late Antiquity, becomes a popular social networking strategy among laypeople from the ninth century onwards, and still finds application in recent times. Located at the intersection of religious and social history, brother-making exemplifies how social practice can become ritualized and subsequently subjected to attempts of ecclesiastical and legal control. The purpose and application of adelphopoiesis can be studied within three large, and partially overlapping, contexts: within the context of male-male relations, as a way to formalize a partnership; within the context of ritual kinship strategies, as a way to expand one’s family circle; and within the context of Byzantine Christianity, as a way for the church to exercise influence and control.

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